The present disclosure relates generally to a face seal for a gas turbine engine and more particularly to a retaining plate for the same.
High performance gas turbine engines include main shaft bearing compartments and employ seals to prevent cooling/lubricating oil from escaping from the bearing compartments into the rest of the engine. One type of seal commonly used for this function is a face seal. Face seals enable the engine, and bearing compartments within the engine, to function properly with minimal impact on a Thrust Specific Fuel Consumption (TSFC), the Thermal Management System (TMS), and the lubrication system of the gas turbine engine.
In some face seals, a component, such as a retaining plate, is utilized to maintain the sealing element in position within the face seal. Existing retaining plates include a large overlap between the retaining plate and a seal element in order to ensure that a full 360 degree arc of the seal element is covered by the retaining plate. The overlap between the retaining plate and the seal element is referred to as a “seal overlap”. When the gas turbine engine includes particularly small gapping and/or physical space and geometry requirements, a large seal overlap can disqualify the existing retaining ring based carbon seal designs.